I became a fan of the Professional Bowlers Tour when I was 8
years old. The very first show I saw was in 1974 when Jim Stefanich shot
his 300 game, and I was hooked ever since. Since that time, my life on Saturday afternoons at 3:30
revolved around the Pro Bowlers Tour on ABC. As a kid growing up, when
bowling was still in its heyday, I would bowl in my youth league on Saturday morning,
come home for lunch, and then sit around waiting anxiously for 3:30. By 3pm, the
anticipation was so great, I couldn't take it anymore. My father and I
would watch together. After the TV show,
I would go down into the basement, where I had a plastic set of pins, and a do
it yourself bowling lane (made by masking tape on the floor), I would bowl for
hours on end. As I got older, into my middle school year, high school, and
finally college, I always felt the same excitement as when I was 8 years old
waiting for the pro bowlers tour. In my college years, of course being
busy with academics, and other commitments, it was much more difficult to watch
the shows live. I bought my first VCR in 1986, and used to tape the
shows. Most of the weeks I would record over with the next week's shows,
but then somewhere along the line, I started saving the shows. I haven't really watched any of
them in a long time, but they've been safe and sound in storage all these years.
It was last year when I saw that somebody posted a video clip of some bowling
footage where I got the idea that I could do the same with what I
have. I also thought that I could easily share my video clips with
others by creating a web page dedicated to fans of the PBT to help reminisce about a
time we can all identify with, when bowling was king and 3:30pm on Saturday
afternoons was the place to be. As time marches on, things change, and so
in 1997 ABC ended its run covering the Pro Bowlers Tour. I was sad to
see the PBT go off the air as I felt something that was a part of me
for so long would no longer be there. CBS, and now ESPN have aired the
events, but I think anybody who grew up watching bowling in the 60s, 70s and 80s
probably feels today's productions are just not the same. In fact, as dedicated a viewer as I once was,
sadly, I
hardly ever watch the telecasts anymore, unless there's a particular bowler
that I'm interested in that's on. The following
links contain information about each event, and another link as to where you can
view the video clip. I'm always adding new clips, so please keep on coming
back for further updates.

This page is in memory of my friend, Larry
Horn:
1962 - 2006, who achieved bowling perfection on the lanes twice, and my friend
and teammate, Andy Rubin who passed
away suddenly at the age of 56 on October 11, 2008